


Plain and Ordinary

by peggy_hamilton



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-25 11:54:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22191844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peggy_hamilton/pseuds/peggy_hamilton
Summary: speculative fic on what would have happened to peter if he hadn't got bit
Kudos: 4





	Plain and Ordinary

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted on my tumblr justthinkingofwaystoavoidbusses
> 
> original request: AU Question: If Peter Parker saw the radioactive spider, swatted it away from his hand before it bit him and it ended up being crushed by someone at the Science Hall, how different would things be if plain Peter Parker was still plain Peter Parker? Note: That this event can take place in any Marvel Universe (from the 616 Universe, the A: EMH U, the 1981 ‘verse, etc). - @frostbite883

Peter strolled through the science hall, there were lots of others crowded round so it was hard to move quickly but he was still able to get a good look at all the exhibits. He felt an itch on his hand and absentmindedly went to scratch it, instead he felt something on his hand.

He looked down and saw a large spider on his hand, Peter yelped in alarm and swatted it frantically off his arm while jumping away from it. Keeping his eyes trained on the arachnid he saw it get trampled and crushed by a passing group of teens. He shuddered and walked on, that was a close one.

—

Life continued to be uneventful and boring for Peter, a drag of homework, school and doing the dishes and other house chores. He was on the way back home after school when he was pushed to the ground by an escaping burglar.

Moments later a security guard came out of a nearby building and yelled at Peter to “Stop him!” while pointing at the burglar. Peter was still on the floor and looked over to the guard who had made no move from the building and the burglar was already getting away, “Why me? It’s your job dude,” he yelled back and picked himself up from the ground and brushed gravel off his clothes.

—

That turned out to be one of the worst days of Peter’s life. When he finally got home there were police cars cordoning off the area around his house and he saw Aunt May crying hysterically outside on the front porch.

Peter rushed over to comfort her and find out what happened, she couldn’t speak so a police officer had to explain that Uncle Ben had been murdered by a burglar. He didn’t have to find out any more that to know in his gut that it was the same burglar that he hadn’t stopped on the way home.

It was his fault.

—

The next few months were difficult, Aunt May was quieter than usual. Peter knew she was putting on a brave face for him but at night he could hear her crying. He couldn’t shake the guilt that it was his fault Uncle Ben had died, he spent a lot of his time down by the police station constantly asking if they had any new leads.

After several months he realised they were never going to find him and had probably dropped the case by now anyway. If he was going to avenge Uncle Ben’s death he would have to do it himself.

—

To track down this guy he had to get involved with some dodgy people in a gang, Aunt May was constantly worried sick about him being out so late all the time but he pushed on. He had to do this.

Except it was harder to track down a guy when your only description of him was ‘burglar’, hardly the most detailed piece of information. Some good did come out of it though, now that he was part of this gang he knew in advance when crimes were going to take place and he could get there to stop them in time (whilst in disguise because the others would kill him for sure if they knew who he was and what he was doing).

Peter became quite a good fighter, he was able to take down people over twice his size by using their weight against them. He also became skilled in tracking down crimes that were happening outside of the gang, he built a makeshift radio out of an old mp3 to pick up calls to the police station.

Of course there were times when it didn’t work out, when he didn’t get away from the scene in time and the police arrested him thinking that he was the criminal rather than the helpful stranger. He would get bailed out by his ‘friends’ or escape each time though.

—

Eventually he broke away from the gang, he couldn’t stick with them and be associated with them whilst he was so strongly against what they did. Plus, it would get suspicious if he was never around when all their crimes got stopped.

Aunt May had begun to get better and Peter focussed on just stopping crime all around rather than focussing on avenging Uncle Ben. He had accepted that his chances of finding the guy were next to nothing and he wasn’t going to waste any more time finding him when he could be actually helping others.

—

That’s how things went, two years after Uncle Ben’s death both Peter and Aunt May had mostly gotten over his death and had begun to be happy. Until Aunt May was out at work and Peter was home alone, he heard a crash from the kitchen and ran out to see who it was.

It was a burglar, instantly Peter recognised him as the burglar from that day. He lunged forward and tackled him to the ground, throwing punches and kicks wherever he could get them. The man fought back but was no match until he pulled out a gun.

Peter wrestled the man for the gun, trying to get it off him. The gun went off with a loud bang and Peter stumbled back shocked. Both of them looked down to see a bullet hole in the man’s stomach start leaking copious amounts of blood. The burglar aimed the gun sloppily and fired the rest of the bullets, luckily Peter managed to dodge them all and they landed in the wall behind where he had been standing.

The police arrived some time later, Peter wasn’t sure how long. He had spent two years wanting this guy dead and now that he had what he wanted he didn’t feel any better. The burglar being dead didn’t bring back Uncle Ben or undo the crimes he had done, he didn’t feel any better for it.

—

After that Peter decided that just because he had reached his goal that didn’t mean he had to stop fighting crime. It was his duty to protect others even if it wasn’t his job, if he could stop bad things happening to any other people then that was what he was going to do.


End file.
